University of South Carolina – Rural Health Research Center
Policy Brief
Rural mental health and behavioral health
One in five adults and one in six youths experience mental illness each year, and geographic variations exist. Rural residents are more likely than urban residents to experience mental health disorders, or more importantly, serious mental illness — “serious functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.”In 2019, nearly a quarter of rural residents, about 6.5 million individuals reported having mental illness.